State to fund 65% of Kilcock-Kilbeggan road

The State will put up about 65 per cent of the cost of the proposed Kilcock-Kilbeggan motorway before handing it over to the private sector which will collect tolls for the road for the following 30 years.

However, the Department of Finance said yesterday that the figure of 65 per cent should not be used as a yardstick and the State's contribution to any one of the remaining 39 public private partnership deals currently being worked out will vary with the level of risk attached.

The National Roads Authority has previously said the figure of 65 per cent is about average.

Commenting after the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, launched a national communications strategy to promote the partnership idea to business and the public, the Department said the State's contribution would be examined on a case-by-case basis.

According to the Department of Finance the greatest activity in PPP projects appears to be in the road-building sector with the third such project, the second West Link bridge, expected to open in July. The State's first and second PPPs were the East Link and first West Link bridges.

However, the process has attracted some criticism as the State's investment in the Dublin ring road, the M50, amounts to about €1 billion, while the private sector investment in the West Link bridge, a key part of the M50, is a just fraction of that amount. The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has expressed concern that the State's investment in the M50 can be undermined by long delays at the bridge toll booths.

In advance of the Kilcock-Kilbeggan motorway beginning construction the Minister has inserted a clause in the construction and operation contract stipulating that, if five or more cars are queuing at the toll booth, the gates have to be lifted, at the contractors' expense, until congestion is eased.

Yesterday's launch was described by Mr McCreevy as "the culmination of discussions between the social partners" and was attended by Mr David Begg of the ICTU and representatives of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). The overall aim of the strategy was to improve the profile of PPPs as a mechanism to promote innovation in the supply of infrastructural projects, he said.

Roads which have been earmarked as PPP projects include the Waterford by-pass, the N7 western crossing of the Shannon at Limerick, the Dundalk western by-pass, the M8 Rathcormac to Fermoy by-pass; the Kilcock-Kilbeggan motorway and the second West Link bridge.

The operation of Luas Lines A and B is to be by PPP while further construction of Luas lines is likely to also be driven by PPPs. Five post-primary schools are the subject of a PPP, the first of which was officially opened last December.

Also included is the National Maritime College, Ringaskiddy, Co Cork; the Cork School of Music; a 400,000 to 500,000 tonne capacity, thermal waste treatment plant for Dublin; two bio-treatment plants for waste management in Dublin; A wastewater treatment plant in Donegal; and housing projects in Cherry Orchard and Mulhuddart in Dublin.